What's in a cake or chocolate
by Makiko Igami
Summary: Set after the Jake-Incident, Valentine's NC 1978. Barnaby and Kotetsu exchange sweets on Valentine's Day.


Kotetsu stared at the box that sat on his desk as he arrived at work, wrapped up nicely in silk paper and adorned with a card on top of it. He didn't know about these things, but it looked _very_ expensive.

Even more expensive than that ridiculous cake he and Barnaby had to pose for, like they were making it for everyone who had preordered it and were having the greatest time of their lives. They even sold it together with tiny little figurines of them both and a card with their best wishes... Well, at least they had been allowed to pick what they wanted to say on it.

He had tried to get one for Kaede, because she knew that she would just love the Barnaby doll that came with it, but it had cost him a good part of his allowance and there was no way that he was able to get anybody else something as fancy as this. Thus, yesterday after work, he had spend endless hours to make little truffles that looked really bad in the end, but he liked them. They were sweet and rich in taste, but you'd better eat them before you looked at them.

Each and every one of the Heroes had gotten one in their lockers early this morning - he had gotten up a little earlier than usual to go to the gym before everyone else - and he had made sure that the one for Barnaby was a little bigger and the best looking out of all the ones that he had made, but now that he saw this package and - yep, a look into the card confirmed it - he didn't want to give it to Barnaby anymore. How could he, when all of his clothes were not as expensive as that little box on his desk.

"Really... you've got too much money," Kotetsu sighed as he picked the card up with one hand, sitting down and put the little bag with Barnaby's chocolate into his drawer, which was already stuffed to the brim and thus he managed to crumple the poor sweet up further, even though it went by unnoticed to him. "You could help me by paying for some of my fines, if you got that much spare money..."

"What are you mumbling about, old man?" Barnaby asked as he returned with a cup of coffee and sat down on his side of the desk.

Kotetsu started, his back snapping up straight as if the sheer presence of his partner called him to attention like an obedient dog's tail or something. He frowned at himself, then sighed.

"Nothing, lil' Bunny, it's nothing... Good Morning."

"Good Morning, Kotetsu," Barnaby answered. "I'm sorry I haven't brought you coffee, I didn't know you were in already."

"Ah, it's fine, I'll just get some on my own," Kotetsu waved it off exuberantly, smiling at the other. Of course, he was wearing his heart on his sleeve and he couldn't quite hide the fact that he was quite embarrassed about his mishap with the chocolates. "Thanks for this, by the way... But you really shouldn't have..."

"Hm? Oh this... I bought too many yesterday so I thought you could have it," Barnaby said non-chalantly, killing Kotetsu's hopes that they had finally gotten past the barrier of being simple colleagues with this simple offhand comment.

"...You're really not cute, Bunny-chan, you know that?" he growled, trying to tell himself that the pain in his chest came from the woes of growing old instead of his heart breaking.

"It's Barnaby," Bunny replied as he went back to the files on his computer, typing up reports or something like that, and Kotetsu knew that he should be doing the same. But now, that he felt as heartbroken as this, he was sure that he couldn't find any more motivation anymore.

Slowly he let his head sink down onto the desk and closed his eyes with a sigh.

"What's this, you just came in to work and you're falling asleep on your desk already?" Barnaby taunted as he glanced over. "Don't you think you could spend your time a little better?"

"Shut up, you don't know about this old man's feelings. Can't you be a little cuter for at least today? It's Valentines Day after all!" Kotetsu whined, his cheek scrunched up on the cold desk. At least it helped him with getting rid of his pink cheeks.

"So it is. But, as far as I know, neither of us is in a romantic relationship so we don't need to bother about things like chocolates, flowers and-"

"And what is with this... this cake or whatever this is? It's been damn expensive and I don't want you to spend this much money on me!" Kotetsu shouted, pointing to the offending box next to his face.

"It's like I told you, I bought too many of-"

"Who the hell buys too much of some damn freaking expensive cake?" Kotetsu exploded and was glad that the secretary wasn't at her desk at this time, probably in a meeting with Lloyds or whatever. "_Normal_ people don't even know that these kinds of expensive goods even exist!"

"...If you don't want it I can give it to-"

"No! That's... That's not... Bunny, tell me you _really_ only giving me that because you had too much of it," Kotetsu tried to reason, not at all buying that stupid excuse. He didn't want to be the only one who put some thought into something as weird as a gift for Valentine's Day, not when _he_ got some motherfucking expensive cake out of it like it was just some simple leftovers.

Green eyes stared at him unwavering, hidden behind glasses, before their owner sighed and pushed those glasses up a little further. "Kotetsu, why is that bothering you so much? I thought it was a nice gesture to give you something on this day, as it seems to be so special to you or something, so please accept it as it is, a token of my gratitude."

"You have a horrible way of showing it," Kotetsu grumbled as he straightened back up, having finally decided to show his partner how these things were supposed to be done.

Opening the drawer, Kotetsu finally saw the disaster that had happened to his chocolate and gasped. What had once resembled more or less a cute little dark bunny was now a heap of chocolate and cocoa powder and looked really, really gross. He stared at it, his bottom lip jutting out in a pout, wondering if the world wanted to make him suffer. Not enough that Barnaby had to rub into his face that he wasn't as popular as he was, no, now the one thing that he had been losing sleep over last night when an old man like him really needed that sleep was also smashed to smithereens. He really deserved that nickname of 'Crusher'...

"...Where did you get that?" Barnaby asked, suddenly behind him and Kotetsu started and knocked the expensive looking box over and off his desk so that it landed on one of its corners, effectively smashing whatever was inside.

"Ah!"

Kotetsu stared at the now ruined box in horror, wondering what kinds of insults Barnaby would throw at him now; that he was a clumsy old man, who destroyed everything in his sight and couldn't be trusted with even something similar like a box of cake.

"...Seems like we are even now," the blond mumbled instead as he picked up the now ruined box and placed it next to the equally ruined bag of chocolates. "Both presents are equally ruined."

"...I'm sorry," Kotetsu mumbled meekly as he stared at his handiwork. "I'm sure it'll still taste good, don't you think, Bunny?"

"I don't know. I don't like sweets that much," the blond gave back, earning him a baffled and open-mouthed stare from the other.

"What?"

How could he not like sweets? Everybody liked sweets! And chocolates even moreso!

"I don't really like sweets... I got this chocolate as a Valentine's present from the confectionery that is selling the cake that we posed for and... it was a little too much, for my tastes. I was about to throw it away, but I remembered that you liked things with... a lot of sugar, so I thought it would be best if I gave it to you instead," Barnaby finally explained the whole story behind the box.

Still, Kotetsu didn't quite believe him, but at least it sounded a bit more plausible than his previous explanation.

"I made these, yesterday night," Kotetsu explained in return, pointing to his bag with the pink ribbon.

"You did? I didn't expect you to be able to cook anything else but fried rice," Barnaby gave back.

"I can't really, but that's okay, fried rice is the best thing in the world." Kotetsu grumbled as he started to carefully unwrap the small box. "But I've got this recipe from my wife and... I used to make chocolate for her every year, but I'd always have too many of them, so I gave some to Ben and the other guys at TopMag's Hero Department. It's kind of become a tradition for me to make chocolate every year on the eve to Valentine's Day."

"I see," Barnaby said and picked up the small bag before he leaned back to stand upright again.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to eat it," the blond replied as he undid the ribbon and picked a small piece of the chocolate crumbs out of the bag with his long fingers and popped it into his mouth. He chewed carefully on it, savoring the taste until Kotetsu felt the need to ask him how he was able to chew that long on such a small piece.

"...It's good," came the verdict after a small swallow, making the older man's chest swell up in pride.

"Really?"

"Mhm... It's not too sweet, it has got a very rich taste... Very refined for something coming from you," Barnaby continued, picking out another crumb from the bag.

"Hah, I knew you'd like it! I know they taste good, but I've never been able to make them _look_ right," Kotetsu continued, peeling the plastic wrapper from around the cream cake, most of the cream sticking to it anyway. He popped the strawberry into his mouth, realizing that February wasn't the best month for strawberries after all.

"Don't get your head too full of yourself, old man. Just because I like your chocolate doesn't mean you're a good cook. Or confectioner," Barnaby continued, walking around to get back to his desk. Kotetsu couldn't help but notice how the other rewrapped the ribbon back around the bag and stored it in his own drawer for later.

"I guess I'll just keep trusting my own taste buds then," he gave back and stood up as well to help himself to a cup of coffee and a small fork, so that he could eat this atrociously fancy looking cake before it decided to punish him for his mishap by disappearing. Or he would wake up and realize that all of this was just a dream, that the chocolates he made were ruined and he had gone mental over the lack of sleep that he'd gotten. "I'll be back in a minute!"

Barnaby looked at his retreating back, smiling to himself before his gaze wandered to the drawer that was currently keeping Kotetsu's chocolates safe.

Maybe one day he would be able to give his partner a box of chocolates and tell him exactly why he wanted to give him those in a heart-shaped box.

But this day was not today.


End file.
